France has announced a new national AI strategy, including government funding worth nearly €1.5 billion ($1.85 billion). But the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, is worried about the damage this technology could do if not properly guided. In an interview with Wired, he said there was even a risk AI could “jeopardize democracy.” Macron is worried […]

China’s out-of-control space station harmlessly breaks up over the Pacific Ocean

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China’s out-of-control space station — Tiangong-1 — has at last plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and landed somewhere over the southern Pacific Ocean. The spiraling spacecraft made its descent at around 8:16PM ET on April 1st, according to US Strategic Command, which was able to confirm the exact point of reentry along with organizations in eight […]

Last summer, Niantic Labs celebrated the first year of Pokémon GO with an in-person event in Chicago, with others to follow in Europe. It didn’t go well: spotty cell signals and overwhelmed servers turned the event into a disaster, and two dozen attendees launched a class action lawsuit to try and recoup travel expenses. TechCrunch […]

The grilles (both real and faux) of the 2018 New York Auto Show

Hyperspektiv is a photo app that produces glitchy, psychedelic images

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I love a good photo app, but there are so many in the App Store that it’s hard to know where to begin. If you’re looking for a photo- and video-editing app that does something a little different than the standard Instagram-like filters, a glitch-inducing app called Hyperspektiv might be a nice alternative to play […]

16 new science fiction and fantasy books to read this April

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Last month, I picked up The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies, a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz. Fritz looks closely at the rise of prestige TV shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, as well as mega-franchises like Disney’s Star Wars and Marvel properties, and what […]

Telegram has raised a total of $1.7 billion from its two pre-ICO sales

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In February, secure messaging service Telegram launched a presale for the its cryptocurency prior to an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), raising $850 million from 81 investors, and later that month, The Verge learned that it was launching a second private presale, in which it aimed to double that amount. Bloomberg Technology reports that the company […]

This 2011 visual novel predicted how privacy would change in 2018

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It can be difficult to find time to finish a video game, especially if you only have a few hours a week to play. In our biweekly column Short Play we suggest video games that can be started and finished in a weekend. I played Don’t Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain’t Your Story […]

April Fools’ Day 2018: the best (and lamest) pranks

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April Fools’ Day is upon us, bringing with it a deluge of terrible jokes, ill-advised pranks, and the occasional inspired product concept. The “holiday” has been around for centuries, and companies from all over the internet have been imposing their jokes on us for the last couple of days. While most are pretty groan-worthy, some […]